THIS WEEK: The Alaska Anchorage Seawolves return from the holiday break when they entertain the Wisconsin Badgers at the Sullivan Arena on Jan. 4-5 for a Western Collegiate Hockey Association series. The games are scheduled to commence at 7:07 p.m. both evenings.

THE SERIES – UAA vs. UWOVERALL: UW leads,49-14-9 AT UAA: UW leads, 18-7-6LAST MEETING: Jan. 21, 2012 (UW won, 3-2) STREAK: UW 3NOTES: The series this weekend will be the 73rd and 74th all-time meeting between the teams and the first of two WCHA series meetings this season … UAA and UW will also meet three weekends later on Jan. 25-26 in Madison, Wis. … last season the teams met for one series – Jan. 20-21, 2012 – with the Badgers sweeping the Seawolves in Wisconsin, 4-0, 3-2 … the last home series against UW was on Dec. 3-4, 2010 with UAA winning on Friday, 2-1 and UW earning the split on Saturday with a 3-1 victory … the last time UAA swept at home was Jan. 15-16, 1999, just the second time ever against UW.UAA vs. UW COMPARISON
Overall Stats UAA UW
Scoring Offense 2.00 (53rd) 2.19 (T-48th)
Scoring Defense 3.06 (T-47th) 2.25 (T-13th)
Penalty Minutes 13.6 (23rd) 13.6 (22nd)
Power Play 9.1 (T-53rd) 12.8 (47th)
Penalty Kill 77.3 (52nd) 81.4 (39th)

SCOUTING THE BADGERS: The Badgers, with a six-game unbeaten streak, head to Alaska following a non-conference sweep against Alabama Huntsville, Dec. 13-14 (5-0, 4-1) ... prior to that, UW picked up a pair of ties with Michigan Tech on Dec. 7-8 ... the Badgers have two wins in league play with the last coming at Denver (3-1) on Nov. 30 ... first WCHA win was on Oct. 26 against Minnesota Duluth (Oct. 26) ... UW is led offensively by junior F Michael Mersch (11-4–15) – second among WCHA skaters in goals –, senior F Derek Lee (2-11–13) and sophomore D Jake McCabe (2-7–9) ... McCabe is expected to miss the series as he is skating for the 2013 U.S. National Junior Team in Russia ... dressing in 10 games between the pipes is sophomore G Joel Rumpel (.917 sv%, 2.30 gaa, 2-5-3), while sophomore G Landon Petersen (.942 sv%, 2-2-2) has seen action in 7 games and leads the conference with a 1.63 goals-against average.
LAST TIME vs. WISCONSIN: Last season, UAA was swept by the Wisconsin Badgers, 4-0, on Jan. 20, and 3-2 on Jan. 21 at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis. ... the Seawolves were handed their fourth shutout of the season on Friday, before dropping their fifth straight on Saturday ... scoring a power-play tally for UAA and getting the Seawolves on the board first was then-freshman D Austin Coldwell on Jan. 21 ... senior F/D Curtis Leinweber collected his team-high-tying seventh goal of the season to tie the game in the second, but the Badgers got the winning goal with under five minutes left in regulation for the WCHA sweep.

LAST TIME OUT: Prior to the break, the Seawolves were swept for just the second time of the season against Minnesota Duluth in Anchorage (5-1, 2-1) ... on Friday night, the Seawolves were able to avert their fourth shutout of the season when senior F Tyler Currier collected his third of the season in the final period … assisting on the play was senior F Captain Chris Crowell and freshman Bobby Murphy – his first collegiate point … on Saturday night, senior F Daniel Naslund collected UAA’s lone tally with freshman Hayden Trupp registering the helper … junior goaltenders Chris Kamal and Rob Gunderson split time between the pipes.

SEAWOLF BITES: UAA allowed one power-play tally over the weekend (8-9) against Minnesota Duluth and has now allowed one or less power-play goals in the last nine games, going 81 percent on the penalty kill in that span (26/32) … after the OT game on Nov. 30, the Seawolves have played in five games that have gone into sudden death, going 0-1-4 ... UAA is faring much better on Saturday nights, going 2-3-3 compared to 1-6-1 on Friday nights ... the Seawolves are 2-1-2 when keeping an opponent scoreless on the man advantage ... the Seawolves are currently tied for No. 3 in the country with four shorthanded goals (Bentley, Colgate, Colorado College, New Hampshire) – Union and Miami have five SHGs –... the senior class leads the Seawolves with 28 points and 16 goals, while the freshmen lead with 15 assists ... currently, 10 Seawolves have dressed in all 16 contests ... the Seawolves completed the month of October with a 2-2-2 (.500) record – their best winning percentage in the opening month since the 2008-09 slate when they went 4-2-1 (.642) ... UAA earned its first WCHA point of the season with the 3-3 tie on Oct. 27 – UAA’s first non-loss at UND since Nov. 14, 2008 ... at the completion of four of the six non-conference games this season, UAA is 2-1-1 … Dave Shyiak is 18-8-6 (.656) all-time in the first four games … the Seawolves claimed their second straight Kendall Hockey Classic title on Oct. 12-13 … UAA is now, 22-14-10 overall in the Classic ... UAA is now 8-3-5 in under Shyiak in the Kendall Hockey Classic, with titles in 2006, 2011 and 2012 ... the Seawolves are now 6-0-2 in season-openers under Shyiak ... UAA hasn’t lost a season-opener since 2000 against Michigan State (5-4); since then, UAA has gone 9-0-3 in season-openers ... the shutout on Oct. 12 was only the second for UAA in a season-opener in 35 years of program history, along with a 4-0 win against Niagara in the 1999 Classic.

PLAYER NOTES: Individually, rookie F Blake Tatchell leads UAA with 10 points ... Tatchell (3-7–10), from North Battleford, Sask., is currently tied for No. 27 in the nation for rookies in points per game (.62) and tied for No. 13 in the WCHA (.58)... sophomore F Scott Allen leads UAA with seven goals ... Allen (7-2–9), who was named to the Kendall Hockey Classic all-tournament team, has easily bypassed his goal total from his rookie campaign (3) ... Allen also leads UAA with a .269 scoring percentage, placing 26 shots on net ... Allen is currently tied for No. 33 on the WCHA goal list ... junior F Matt Bailey and Tatchell are tied for team lead with seven assists … Bailey is tied for second on the team with nine points and leads all current UAA skaters with 46 points and 22 goals … Bailey, from Oakbank, Manitoba, has scored at least one point in seven games this season, including two multi-point games ... UAA is 2-2-3 when Bailey registers a point ... senior F Jordan Kwas leads the Seawolves with two power-play tallies … Kwas is second among current UAA skaters with 45 career points ... junior G Chris Kamal and junior F Rob Gunderson split time between the pipes against Minnesota Duluth with Kamal making 33 saves on Dec. 15 ... Kamal’s save percentage in his last four games was .917, stopping 134 of 146 shots ... scoring in a team-high-tying eight games is senior F Alex Gellert ... Gellert is fourth on the team with eight points and has five goals – already bypassing his goal total from any of his previous campaigns.

INJURY UPDATE: Junior F Brett Cameron fractured his collarbone on Nov. 23 against Bemidji State and is still on the inactive list.